Factory roof racks--price drop

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EricJ

Member
I got my '23 with the base rails (black on black roof). With the end of the body style approaching, I've been waiting for the price of racks to go down.

That apparently just happened. They were ~$400 plus shipping, but I just saw that online Mini dealers have them for a little over $300 plus shipping. I bought mine from an online parts place (named after an aquatic bird) for $322, shipped and with tax.

Just ordered and have not yet gotten them, but our BMW X1 racks were made by Thule and fantastic, and these look to be the same design. And they are really (really!) inexpensive compared to Thule. These come with locks and say "Mini" on them. Unfortunately only in silver, though. Our Hyundai rack also appears to be Thule, but in black!
 
EricJ said:
Just ordered and have not yet gotten them, but our BMW X1 racks were made by Thule and fantastic, and these look to be the same design. And they are really (really!) inexpensive compared to Thule. These come with locks and say "Mini" on them. Unfortunately only in silver, though. Our Hyundai rack also appears to be Thule, but in black!
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When I got my MINI, I thought I could easily transfer my Thule racks from my Impreza to the MINI, with just a change in footers. In the end, I found that none of the parts could be transferred: the little slots on the bottom of the rails for the footers didn't extend far enough into the rack for the MINI footers; and the screws for the bike rack didn't provide enough clearance for the sunroof. But, the all black components for the new rack are certainly a better fit.

I found it interesting that the Thule documentation says that if I carry a paddle board on the racks, I am limited to 50 mph; the lift of the SUP exceeds the ability of the clamps on the footers to hang onto MINI's flush roof rails.

(Winter tires plus bike rack results in 4.1kWh per mile; summer tires with no bike rack, for me, results in 5.1kWh per mile. I almost always have open windows and sunroof.)
 
Qisl said:
When I got my MINI, I thought I could easily transfer my Thule racks from my Impreza to the MINI, with just a change in footers. In the end, I found that none of the parts could be transferred: the little slots on the bottom of the rails for the footers didn't extend far enough into the rack for the MINI footers; and the screws for the bike rack didn't provide enough clearance for the sunroof. But, the all black components for the new rack are certainly a better fit.

I found it interesting that the Thule documentation says that if I carry a paddle board on the racks, I am limited to 50 mph; the lift of the SUP exceeds the ability of the clamps on the footers to hang onto MINI's flush roof rails.

(Winter tires plus bike rack results in 4.1kWh per mile; summer tires with no bike rack, for me, results in 5.1kWh per mile. I almost always have open windows and sunroof.)
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Recently in NY we have 25-35 F. Temperatures and my SE is parking in 60’F garage as my patern driving 2-3-5 miles a trip this champ hardly give me 75 miles range what BMW was thinking introducing today such useless car but works for me and I wander what new buyers seeing my post are thinking to go ahead and buy this champ of RANGE .Im always in sport mode bc different modes not meet my driving requirements car is loose like cattle on pasture .
 
Update--the racks came and are almost exactly the same as the BMW X1 racks. Well made. The tightening rachet is a little different, and I got four keys instead of one. An embarrassment of riches.

They are super solid, but very loud--they are annoying even at 50 mph. Typical default for me is to leave racks on cars, but probably not with these.
 
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